Will Allen speaks to freshmen at George Washington University last week. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)

Will Allen, a Milwaukee-based urban agriculture advocate, said late last week he wants to establish an urban agriculture office in Washington to urge Congress to put more money into sustainable agriculture in the next farm bill.

In a speech last Friday to George Washington University freshmen that seemed typical of programs on food issues at universities, Allen said he would like to change the farm bill so that “not so much money goes to millionaire farmers.”

“They’re not really farmers,” he said.
Will Allen
Allen did not take a position on genetic modification, but said “we don’t know the results of eating that food.” He added that “People know the food system is broken and we need to repair to survive as a species.”

The most important way to encourage urban agriculture, he said, is to establish projects that can serve as models for more urban farms and for policymakers to see.

He also said low-income people in the cities need to be educated about the importance of eating healthy food. Speaking of the high cost of most organic food, Allen said he has brought down the costs on his urban farms.

In response to questions from students, Allen also urged the development of more aquaculture in the United States, saying that most U.S. seafood and fish come from China and other countries where it is difficult to monitor the conditions under which they are raised.

The university also bought copies of Allen’s book, “The Good Food Revolution” for each of the freshmen and adopted a “Plant Seeds, Cultivate Justice” theme for its freshman reading program and day of service. Students were scheduled to serve Saturday at Eco City Farms in Prince George’s County, Md., among other places.

Allen praised the university for its “interest in food and food justice” and said his goal is to make healthy food available to all. He told the students that his own farm roots “started 400 years ago” among his Native American and African-American ancestors.

“Everybody used to be involved in agriculture because they needed to grow food to survive,” he said. The problem today, he said, is that “people don’t know where their food comes from.”

Allen noted that his sharecropper grandparents left the Deep South in the Great Migration north.

Asked whether he maintains a diet, he said he does but sometimes can’t find healthy food in airports or in some of the small southern towns where he has been working.

In several places, he said, the Subway sandwich chain offers the healthiest food in town. In some small southern towns, Allen said, there has been so much economic decline and the diet is so unhealthy “there are more dialysis centers than restaurants.”

Allen, who grew up in Rockville, Md., is former professional football player and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Proctor and Gamble executive who founded Growing Together, a farm and community center in Milwaukee in 1993.

Allen started his program on vacant lots in Milwaukee, but it has spread all over the country, to Indian reservations and to several foreign countries.

In 2008, he was named a John D. and Katherine T. McArthur Foundation Fellow and was awarded a McArthur “genius grant” for his work.

He is also a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and joined First Lady Michelle Obama in launching “Let’s Move!” her signature program to reverse childhood obesity in America. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of its 100 World’s Most Influential People.

▪ Growing Power, Inc.
▪ ECO City Farms